I've written a few blog post about how Websites for both B2c and B2b are starting to lose the lustre when it comes to being the first destination point for customers or prospects to find out 'who you are'.

Social Commerce will disrupt B2c, already is, and at some point in the near future it will do the same for a big chunk of B2c companies also.

Don't get me wrong it's very much in Googles interest that you continue to 'optimise' your website for it to be found, because there are still zillions of people who are still happy to be told by you how great your product, company services are, and they (Google and SEO agencies) make quite a lot of cash convincing you to do it, however......  

There are numerous things that are shifting this change in 'search' behaviour and non more so than 'social media'. But it seems that brands also are now having sleepless nights worrying where their adverts (designed to get you to the website) will end up.

I was reading this article on 'Digiday' by Tim Peterson (link below) about brand safety, it highlights;

Brand safety continues to be a thorny issue without any single straightforward fix. Even the seemingly most simple brand-safety measure can be exceedingly complicated.

For years, advertisers and agencies have blocked their ads from appearing against content that contains certain keywords, such as profanity and slurs. Those keyword lists can contain other terms that may appear to be innocuous in isolation but inflammatory in the wrong context.

Fearful of an ad appearing in a controversial context, a term like “gay” may be included in a keyword list because an advertiser does not want to appear alongside content promoting hate crimes. However with that inclusion comes to the risk that the advertiser avoids all content containing the term, such as a profile of a gay celebrity, and alienates that audience.

Well' I'm not going to take the opportunistic route here - Oh, go on then I will......

Brand safety aside, people are turning away from intrusive ads at a rate much faster than ever before, in an industry that measures reach before engagement, and pops the Champagne corks when they get a sub 1% click thru, they seem to want to ignore that ad blockers on mobile has yet again increased by another 2.4%. 

So, whilst agency land, the luvvies therein, and the advertising industry in general are patting themselves on the back in 'Cannes' this year, the clients who are probably paying for the jolly are also trying to figure out why those agencies don't have a more robust opaque audit process to explain the $5.8bn+ in ad fraud.

There is a much better way 'I See A Better Alternative, Come With Me' Seth Godin.

We are active 'practitioners' of what we do, we already know and can evidence the ROI of a robust and internally aligned 'Social' strategy.

Part of that evidence it that you are reading this blog, just like many others - including your competitor!

We also don't do outbound pushy, salesy marketing, so if you would like to explore more, please contact the author of this blog.